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18 March 2008

Talk of Britishness is so unbritish

Swearing allegiance, a collapsing mine and how a bootleg liquor stall ran into rocky ground

By Jonathan Calder

About this national identity business. On the whole, I think we are rather good at it.

For centuries my ancestors coped with being English and British, and with all the subtleties those identities involve. They were there to tut and say “Well, really” when the Romans invaded. Later, they gave the Jutes a hard stare.

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